Lineage of Legends

Europe · 1963 – 2013

The Unification Movementacross Europe

From the first US-sent missionaries arriving in Germany in 1963, through True Father's forty-day tour of sixteen nations in 1965, the underground "Mission Butterfly" campaign behind the Iron Curtain, the Schengen entry-ban years, and True Mother's Alpine devotions of 2013 — a chronological reading of the Unification Movement in Europe, drawn from the movement's own published compilation.

A Brief History of the Unification Church in Europe (compilation, c. 2015), archived at tparents.org.
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Era 1

I. Pioneers from America

1963 – 1967

Young Oon Kim · Peter & Barbara Koch · Paul & Christel Werner · Ursula Schuhmann

Missionaries of European background who had met the movement on the West Coast of America through Dr Young Oon Kim return home as the first pioneers, founding the first European branch in Frankfurt in December 1964 and fanning out across the continent.

1963 – 1964

First missionaries sent from the United States to Germany

The European Unification Movement begins when missionaries — most of European background — are sent from the United States, where they had encountered the fledgling Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. Peter Koch and his sister Barbara, Ursula Schuhmann, Paul Werner and his wife Christel, Elke Klawitter, and a little later Teddie Verheyen, Sandy Pinkerton and Doris Walder come to Europe as pioneers. They had all met the movement on the West Coast of America through Dr Young Oon Kim, one of the first Korean missionaries to the western world, who translated the first version of The Divine Principle from Korean into English.

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11 December 1964

First European branch founded in Frankfurt

The first branch of the Holy Spirit Association in Europe is formally founded on 11 December 1964 in Frankfurt, Germany. Humble apartments in Frankfurt and Essen soon prove unable to house the steadily growing number of new members.

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1965

Mission work spreads to the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Austria

Missionaries are sent to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Centres open in other German cities, and Paul and Christel Werner begin the mission work in Austria.

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1966

Italy, France and Spain opened

Mission work begins in Italy. Reiner Vincenz goes to France and Ursula Schuhmann goes to Spain. Within the next five years True Parents are in a position to dispatch missionaries to pioneer or support mission work in ten other European countries, and even on other continents.

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Era 2

II. True Father's first European tour

1965

True Father · Lisbon · the Vatican

True Father's first visit to Europe — a forty-day tour during his 1965 world tour — establishes nineteen holy grounds in sixteen nations, from Lisbon to the Vatican.

1965

True Father's first visit to Europe

True Father visits Europe for the first time during his world tour in 1965. He tours Europe for about forty days, from the first city visited — Lisbon in Portugal — to the Vatican.

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1965

Nineteen holy grounds established in sixteen nations

During the forty-day tour, True Father establishes nineteen holy grounds across sixteen European nations.

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1965

Prayer at the Vatican holy ground

At the holy ground in the Vatican — described as "the concentrated hub of European civilization, the place where the essence of European civilization accumulated" — True Father offers a heartfelt prayer to bring the innumerably divided religious denominations and orders into oneness. True Parents go on to visit Europe more than twenty times, guiding mission work with deep blessings and grace.

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Era 3

III. Mission Butterfly — behind the Iron Curtain

1968 – 1992

Emilie Sterberl · Paul Werner · Peter & Gertrud Koch · Maria Živná

With Europe cruelly divided between the Communist East and the Democratic West, True Parents send underground missionaries from Austria into the Warsaw Pact countries. The campaign — later code-named "Mission Butterfly" — produces the first martyr of the movement in a Communist country.

August 1968

Emilie Sterberl sent into Czechoslovakia

Paul Werner, national leader of Austria, sends Emilie Sterberl — a Slovakian who had been deported from her homeland as part of the outcome of World War II — as the first underground missionary to Czechoslovakia. She had been a church member for just two years. At the time of her dispatch, Warsaw Pact countries are crushing the Prague Spring reform movement and occupying Czechoslovakia.

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1970 – 1973

Movement grows in Czechoslovakia under Alžbeta Danišková

When it becomes difficult to continue mission work in Prague, Emilie Sterberl moves to Bratislava and witnesses to twelve people in two years while studying Slovakian at university. She remains only until 1970. Alžbeta Danišková then leads the movement, and the membership grows. They establish thirty pioneer centres by 1973.

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1973

Thirty members arrested and imprisoned

With membership exceeding a hundred in the Czech Republic, the police arrest nearly thirty members. They are accused of "subversion of the republic" and sentenced to prison terms of between one and four years.

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16 April 1974

Maria Živná dies in Bratislava Prison

Maria Živná dies a martyr in Bratislava Prison on 16 April 1974 — the first martyr to die while conducting missionary work in a Communist country. In the following year another person also loses his life in prison. In 1994, True Parents officially recognise Marie Živná as a Unification Church martyr.

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1980 – 1992

"Mission Butterfly" sends volunteers across the Eastern Bloc

True Parents appoint Peter Koch to succeed Paul Werner as national leader of Austria. Beginning in 1980, Austrian members under Peter Koch's overall guidance enter Eastern Europe at the risk of their lives, carrying out underground mission work in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, East Germany and even the Soviet Union. Until 1992 Butterfly missionaries are sent out — mainly from Austria under the guidance of Peter and Gertrud Koch — experiencing unspoken hardships but also many miracles of spiritual guidance and protection.

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Era 4

IV. Blessings, the wall, and the end of the Cold War

1978 – 1989

True Father · Ye Jin Nim · PWPA · Hyo Jin Nim · CARP

True Parents stay in London for four months to begin the Home Church providence and bless 118 couples. In 1985 the Professors World Peace Academy in Geneva proclaims the downfall of Soviet communism; two years later Hyo Jin Nim leads three thousand CARP members in prayer at the Berlin Wall.

1978

Home Church providence begins · 118 couples blessed in London

To begin the Home Church providence, True Parents stay for four months in London, England, during which they bless 118 couples at the UK headquarters church. True Mother had been unable to accompany True Father because she was in her last month of pregnancy, so True Father and Ye Jin Nim officiated the Blessing Ceremony.

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1981

Thirty-nine couples blessed in Germany · machine tool investment

When True Parents stay for some weeks in Germany in 1981 to invest in the machine tool industry, they officiate a Blessing Ceremony of thirty-nine couples and the engagement of 309 Blessing candidates. The machine tool technology introduced into Korea at the time later becomes a model for technological equalisation.

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1985

Professors World Peace Academy proclaims Soviet downfall · Geneva

In Geneva, Switzerland, at a time when the expansion of the communist realm has reached its zenith, the professors of the Professors World Peace Academy proclaim the downfall of Soviet communism in accordance with True Parents' own prediction.

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1987

Hyo Jin Nim leads 3,000 CARP members at the Berlin Wall

Two years later, Hyo Jin Nim leads three thousand CARP members from across the world, who have come to appeal for the end of the Cold War at a demonstration in front of the Berlin Wall. He prays: "God is eternal. Let us join our forces to break down this wall. Let us do it with love, with true love. True love can break through anything." The passionate appeals and prayers set in motion the domino effect that would culminate in the collapse of the communist realm.

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Era 5

V. Schengen, True Mother, and the new federations

1992 – 2013

True Mother · Schengen blacklist · WFWP · FFWPU · UPF

Beginning in 1992, True Mother tours Europe and guides her revival, while a dozen Western European nations refuse True Father entry for more than a decade under the Schengen Agreement. Devotions across thirty-five nations eventually break the ban; True Mother's Alpine prayers in 2013 close the era.

1992

True Mother's European tour begins · WFWP inaugurated

From 1992 True Mother tours to all parts of Europe and guides their revival, hosting events including the Women's Federation for World Peace Inaugural Assembly, the Assembly to Proclaim the Completed Testament Age, and the inaugural assembly of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. She endures a grueling schedule of visiting one nation a day to convey God's Word.

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13 November 1992

True Mother arrives in the UK · Church of England ordains women

On 13 November 1992, the day True Mother arrives in the United Kingdom, the Church of England finally allows the ordination of women after years of debate — an incident symbolising that the era of women had indeed arrived. During her European tour, True Mother sings "Santa Lucia" with authentic Italian pronunciation at a celebration following a speech.

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1995

Schengen nations bar True Father · UK refuses entry

Beginning from the mid-1990s, a dozen nations in Western Europe refuse to permit True Father to enter their countries for more than a decade. The Schengen Agreement nations include him on a blacklist, citing the unreasonable view that True Parents threatened national security. Though the United Kingdom is not bound by the agreement, just before True Father is to speak in London in 1995 they bar him from entering the country.

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30 September 1995

European Blessing Ceremony at Camberg

A European Blessing Ceremony is held at the Camberg Training Center, Germany, with 104 people from twenty countries.

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2005 – 2007

UPF inaugurated · Schengen ban broken

In 2005, True Parents inaugurate the Universal Peace Federation in the United States and hold inaugural assemblies in Europe. When they arrive in Poland for the first event, it is impossible for them to deliver their speech in Western European nations except Switzerland and Ireland. European members offer eighteen successive forty-day conditions over two and a half years across Europe's thirty-five nations. The United Kingdom — the first nation to deny True Parents entry — finally grants them permission to visit. In 2007 the Federal Supreme Court of Germany rules that putting True Parents on the Schengen List had been unconstitutional.

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2006

Welcomed by Eastern European leaders · President Moisiu of Albania

During True Parents' speaking tour in 2006, they are welcomed with appreciation by leaders in Eastern European countries, including President Moisiu of Albania. The barriers that had hindered the development of the providence until then have been broken down.

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2013

True Mother's devotions on twelve Alpine peaks

After the declaration of the Foundation Day of Cheon Il Guk in 2013, True Mother offers devotions on Alpine peaks in Switzerland — a blessed land where True Parents had stayed at length in 2005 and 2006 and where True Father had spoken at the United Nations' Geneva Headquarters. Gathering the resolve of all Unification Church family members worldwide for success in Vision 2020, True Mother offers devotions at the summits of twelve mountains. Her prayers for world peace echo throughout the Alps and become the driving force behind activities in the Cheon Il Guk era now being led by European members.

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Sources

Every event on this page is drawn from A Brief History of the Unification Church in Europe, a c. 2015 compilation combining a short narrative history with an Outline of the History of Mission Work in Europe. Names, dates and places are taken directly from the compilation as published.

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